We Shall Behold Him

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Note: Dottie Rambo was an American gospel singer and songwriter. She died at the age of seventy-four, in a bus accident.

People go into hiding for a variety of reasons, some of them quite benign. Children hide, in a game of hide-and-seek. Relatives and friends hide to surprise someone with a birthday, when he arrives home. But there are more sinister reasons for concealment as well.

Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann had a major part in the murder of millions of European Jews. After the war, he fled with his family to Argentina, but he was found, captured, tried, and hung in 1962. The tyrant Saddam Hussein was found in 2003, hiding in a dirty hole in the ground, and was later tried and executed. Criminals have sought to conceal themselves in other equally unpleasant places: one reportedly in a sewer, another in a dumpster. Both were caught.

Not all seem to have a sense of guilt for the evil things they’ve done. Eichmann certainly didn’t. He said toward the end of the war that he would “leap laughing into the grave” because of the satisfying role he had in killing millions of Jews. That grotesque statement is the product of a totally debauched and reprobate mind.

But many likewise do not seem to struggle with guilt over their actions. It’s as though, as the Bible puts it, their conscience has been “seared with a hot iron” (I Tim. 4:2), and become insensitive to the wrongness of their deeds. Yet there is fear. No sense of guilt for their behaviour, but fear of getting caught, and a desire to escape the consequences.

The Bible opens and closes with two instances of people trying vainly to hide from God.

In Eden, after Adam and Eve sinned by eating fruit from a tree forbidden to them (Gen. 2:17; 3:6). With their souls awash with guilt, they felt alienated from one another, and tried to cover themselves (Gen. 3:7). Then we read this:

“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (Gen. 3:8).

Sin had brought about a painful rift in their relationship with God, and they tried to hide themselves from Him.

Fast forward to the end of time, when God will pour out His judgment on this sinful world. Then, we read:

“The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!’” (Rev. 6:15-16).

What a difference there is for the believer who is walking in fellowship with the Lord. We look forward to seeing Him, and being with Him, either ushered into His presence through death, or when summoned into His presence at Christ’s return. Paul spoke of his own “desire to depart and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23), and of others who “have loved His appearing” (II Tim. 4:8).

Gospel song writer Dottie Rambo was traveling by car with a friend to a revival meeting to be held in a large tent. As she drove, she watched an unusually beautiful sunset, with “colours that I had never seen in my lifetime.” She thought of the wonderful prospect of Jesus, “coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30).

Tears filled her eyes so she could not see to drive. She asked her friend Patty to take the wheel, and she composed, in her mind, the words and music of a beautiful song about Christ’s return. It begins:

The sky shall unfold, preparing His entrance;
The stars will applaud Him with thunders of praise;
The sweet light in His eyes shall enhance those awaiting;
And we shall behold Him then, face to face.

Questions:
1) How important is the truth of Christ’s coming in the overall teachings of the local church?

2) Do you feeling this truth is being neglected today by many Christians? (If so, why?)